


Take the Heart of Me

by Copkilla1990



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: #Japan, #butlater, #haikyuuAU, #heianperiod, #itsgonnabesexy, #kagehina - Freeform, #mountaingodtobio, #tenguhinata, #thoughnotreallyrelevant, #tophina, FantasyAU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-12 22:52:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10501110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copkilla1990/pseuds/Copkilla1990
Summary: Hinata Shouyou, a lower level yokai, has the most beautiful wings.Kageyama Tobio is a moody, misunderstood mountain God.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic in probably 10 years..eugh. on my recent trip to Japan we visited the primeval forest in Nara and i was inspired..and i love haikyuu -- with the karasuno allusion to crows i couldnt help myself but attempt a fantasy AU with tengu. and kageyama's name meaning something vaguely like shadow mountain...  
> anyway, i try to brush up on my japanese history and folklore regularly, but this isn't going to be totally accurate. i'm just having a little fun with my sons. /kreep  
> i apologize for the brevity of the chapter, i know it's not much, but i figured i'd throw something up there real quick for my own personal incentives, and see what my response is like??  
> more characters will potentially be added, please let me know if you like this little beginning in the comments! ^^

The trees of the forest arched high at the foot of the mountain, looming thickly at its cusp. A soft sigh of wind tickled the ancient branches, whose resounding response was to creak painfully, their boughs speaking softly to one another of the storm that was fast approaching. Through the twining trees a small path had been hollowed out by men, but it was overgrown, stone lanterns that were occasionally lit having been since extinguished by the blowing gusts. Spiders, patterned with brilliant greens and pinks, scurried back to the cover of their trees. 

Deeper and deeper in the primeval wood, where the air was stifling, abnormally humid and heavy, pregnant with rain; past the peeling orange shrine dedicated to the god of the mountain, where the forest floor lay in perpetual shadow under the cover of October leaves, just barely beginning to turn – something was stirring. 

Illuminated it seemed, by a ray of hazy sunlight from another plane, was an egg. It was massive, off-white and flecked with black and grey speckles, cradled in a nest of branches like gnarled arms. All was still, save for the moments the egg trembled. Then, it stopped moving for a long time. 

Just as the sunlight started to waver, the contents of the egg appeared to rage violently, hunks of inch thick shell being hurled haphazardly from the nest. What was left in its place was something easily recognizable by human eyes: a boy, not but 15 or 16, quite small by regular standards. Bits of eggshell clung stickily to a shock of bright orange hair, which sprayed in multiple directions when he shook. He was entirely naked, understandable for someone who had just been born, lean muscle exposed to the elements of the approaching typhoon. He shivered and stretched in his bed of leaves, taking in his surroundings, and taking in himself.

He had felt warm and small in the egg. Though unable to pinpoint his first sentient moments, he had the acute awareness that there had been someone there to protect and shelter him. Simultaneously he was struck with sudden fear at the realization that he was utterly…alone. There were no sounds around him but the howling of the wind, and the sunlight that had once bathed his egg in light had disappeared, leaving him in the mountain’s shadow. Thunder rumbled low in the distance, which made the boy start, wondering what it was. It was at that moment he noticed his own wings.

They were strong, a deep raven color with a rainbow sheen, reminiscent of the heavens. His brown eyes widened at the beauty of them, and he could hardly believe that they belonged to him. He slowly stretched them, testing them, tentatively pulling them away from his body. Their span was daunting, magnificent, as he completely splayed them, craning his neck to try and take them in, giddy and smiling. There was a stirring of excitement deep in the pit of his stomach, when he innately realized that he could fly. 

His excitement was soon replaced by the fact that he was hungry, and cold, his brown eyes attempting to adjust to the ever-deepening dark. Unable to make sense of what was happening, or where he was, he wrapped himself in his soft wings like a cocoon and fell into a dreamless sleep, exhausted by the first moments of his life.

And so, the low-level Tengu, Hinata Shouyou, was born in the shadow of Kageyama Mountain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they meet! hinata saves the day, kageyama throws up,  
> hinata is still naked, will he ever get clothes?  
> lets hope not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some more rainy day drivel  
> this chapter jumps significantly forward in time from when hinata..hatched? i'm working under the assumption that time progresses very slowly for these two because they potentially live so long, and they don't age...but they can die. and even though they're magical AF they can still get sick  
> can you tell i've recently watched mononoke-hime for the umpteenth time? it also inspired me to write this chapter ^^  
> please feel free to let me know if anything doesn't make sense?? i'm not very good at making sense.  
> i hope you like it!

He retched, feeling the putrid sickness of the mountain. The sludge seeped through his veins like hot venom, his blood polluted. He had abandoned his home in the heart of the wood on a quest to find the source of his – the mountain’s – pain. The nearer he got, the worse he became, but he continued to press on, his only lead the feeling of crippling illness and the anxiety which threatened to suffocate him. 

Kageyama had inherited the mountain this way, although in the beginning he had not known it. The original guardian of the mountain, a hulking and beautiful silver wolf, had succumbed to an illness that quickly turned her from benevolent to terrible. Foaming at the mouth, she rampaged until at last her yellow eyes rolled back into her massive, lolling head. The carnage had seemed infinite. Those that survived her jaws soon succumbed to the same horrific symptoms, and now there were very few who had not been afflicted. The wolves, who had once populated the region, had all but disappeared from the mountains, and the deer became scarce. Only lesser animals seemed to propagate. Tanuki growled and chittered amongst themselves over a piece of rank flesh, and red squirrels with long and tufted ears rustled in the branches above. The morose caw of a crow echoed distantly.

When the silver wolf died, the mountain’s own illness was just beginning. Once perceptive to all aspects of the mountain’s feelings, she had been too rabid, too far gone, to sense it. Guardianship had then passed to young Tobio, who accepted with some reluctance…as if he had a choice. It was common knowledge that the mountain chooses the guardian in accordance with its needs, whether the recipient was willing or not, or ready or not. Tobio became Mt. Kageyama, and Mt. Kageyama became Tobio, and they both, quite quickly, became unbearably sick.

Kageyama was a taciturn individual; solemn, stoic and alone. It seemed to rain perpetually since he had assumed his role, for he rather preferred it. He resided at the mountain’s peak in a ramshackle shrine, although there were several newer ones dotting the mountainside, if you could call any of them new. The once majestic torii were steadily rotting, relatively abandoned and forgotten, a side effect of the budding industrial age. The mountain spirits were no longer a viable human concern. Men wanted metals: copper, gold, and iron, and delved where they were rich, consumed where there was plenty, and abandoned the land when it had been sufficiently ravaged. They burned until the earth was bald of trees, and the rivers marred with waste.

This was the scene that appeared before Kageyama’s eyes, and he stumbled to a stop. The wood ended prematurely, and in place of trees lurked the ghosts of their ashen stumps. The voices of men wailed in the distance, and soot and smoke choked in his throat. Before him lay a massive structure, built from felled trees, belching polluted gases from massive bellows as they smelted iron. He balked, allowing his nausea to overtake him, and he fell to the ground. Around him the world went black. 

He did not know how long it had been before he stirred, his head pounding. Groggily, he attempted to pry open his heavy eyelids, tasting ash on his tongue. 

“You look like shit!” came a voice, bright and sunny. It made his head throb. Blearily, Kageyama cast his tired gaze towards the source of the voice. His eyes were met with a shock of orange, and as they adjusted he realized it was a head of hair, and this head was upside down, its owner dangling precariously from a tree branch nestled in the crook of their knees. It took him a moment to realize that they were totally naked, down to the toes, which were caked with soot. It became very prevalent that his captor was male. 

“Ooooiii! Hello! What are you looking at?” Kageyama’s dark blue eyes snapped back to the upside-down face of his captor, color dotting his cheeks, although he was sure it was just because he was feverish. Yes.

The boy dropped himself down from the branch in what was clearly an attempt to be graceful gone horribly wrong, landing doubled over directly on his neck. As he scrambled to upright himself, Kageyama quickly gathered that they were in a large nest, lined with plush leaves, in an area of the forest he had never been before. This fact surprised him, since he was convinced he had known every nook and cranny of the mountain, if not by sight than by intuition. But what he noticed next shocked him all the more. 

Before him he saw the most beautiful feathers. They were a soft, deep black but with an uncanny iridescence about them that played with his eyes. Kageyama stared. There were not many things that were capable of enrapturing the guardian of the mountain. He was accustomed to beauty…He could grow the most luminous flowers, produce the most crystalline frost. But this was something that he could not have made himself. 

“Pretty - ” he half gasped, before he could stop himself. 

“Ehhh??..” The other, who was now kneeling before him, cocked his head quizzically. Kageyama felt the color rise in his cheeks once again. 

“Ugh, nothing. You’re stupid,” was all he could suffer to manage, and he looked bashfully to the side. _The guardian of the mountain, bashful!_ he thought fervently to himself. _It was just the fever, the fever is all._

“Stupid!? Who’re you calling stupid, you asshole! I just saved your stupid life!” 

“Well, you didn’t have to…” Kageyama replied, nose upturned and arms crossed, acting overly miffed.  
“Didn’t have to?! Of course I did!” the other boy squawked in retort.

“Why?” Kageyama snapped, his eyes furrowed. _The guardian of the mountain doesn’t need saving._

“Why?” the other paused nervously, his voice trembling. “Well…it’s because…because you’re just like me! I’ve never seen someone just like me…” At that he grew close, reaching out to touch Kageyama’s own ruddy black wing. “Granted, I haven’t been around for very long, I don’t think…” He snatched his hand back suddenly, as if burnt. “But I wouldn’t have saved you if I had known you were AWFUL!”

Kageyama frowned, earning a “SCARY! YOU’RE SCARY!” from the other tengu. Admittedly, he hadn’t come across another of his kind in a long time himself. The ones that hadn’t been turned by the she-wolf had fled. His love of his home had kept him from doing the same. 

“Hey, you dumbass! Don’t you know who I am!?” Kageyama growled, not used to being treated with such little respect. “I’m the guardian of this mountain, and you should know your place,” he finished firmly.

Amber eyes widened in response, momentarily surprised, but then squinted shut as peals of laughter burst from the other tengu’s mouth. 

“You!? KageYAMA?! You’re kidding me! More like BAKAGEYAMA,” he shouted, throwing bits of leaves and twigs in Kageyama’s direction, his small, lithe body shaking as he giggled uncontrollably. Kageyama tried get up, face hot with embarrassment, but found himself unable. 

“Look! You can barely stand!” the smaller tengu quipped, but his smiling face turned quickly to one of concern. “You’re really sick…”

Kageyama’s head swam. “It’s the humans…They’re tearing me apart…” He trailed off, feeling faint.

“I’ve been watching them,” the other replied, “From the tops of the trees…That place, it’s always burning, night and day. That’s how I found you. I saw you fall. You threw up…something…black. I was afraid they would find you. And when I got closer…well, I saw _them_ …” – he pointed at Kageyama’s wings – “I wanted to know more about what I was. I thought maybe you could tell me…You really are Kageyama, aren’t you? And that’s why you’re so sick…”

Kageyama groaned in affirmation. 

“My name is Hinata Shouyou…No one was around when I was born, but I heard my name like I felt the sun…”

They were both silent for a while after that. Hinata stood up suddenly, digging around in a corner of the nest. Kageyama noticed that Hinata had a collection of items, things that had been stolen from the human’s encampment. _Well, he definitely acts like a tengu…_ Kageyama thought, feeling a small smile creep onto his face, recalling his more mischievous youth.

Hinata dug out a worn looking string-instrument, which Kageyama recognized as a shamisen. 

“Ugh, you’re smile is even scarier than your regular face!” Hinata chirped, his laughter tinkling like bells. His expression seemed to soften slightly at the glimpse of Kageyama’s smile. “…But I’ll play for you…So get some rest. You’ll be safe here.”

Kageyama listened as Hinata played an eerie song that was caught and carried by the evening wind, and slowly, he was able to relax. The perpetual clouds parted and they were suddenly bathed in cool moonlight. Hinata marveled at the sight; it was rare to see the sun or the moon, since it was always raining. He continued to play as a feeling of strange contentment washed over him, wondering why the shadow had lifted, and for how long?


End file.
